History of nonviolent action

Thanks to Plan to Win for bringing together three essential tools for anyone involved or interested in nonviolent action in one place.

They include the very recent Global Nonviolent Action Database which pulls together case studies of nonviolent action from around the world and from different historical periods in enough detail that we can learn useful lessons for our own campaigns and struggles:

UK Case studies

It can seem hard to find decent case studies (which is why the database is so welcome). For UK activists even recent history gets forgotten. If you fancy a meander through recent UK activist history here’s some possibilities:

• Merrick’s Battle for The Trees for a real flavour of the Newbury Bypass protests, though you’re going to have to look for it second-hand
• Life in the Fast lane, the story of the No M11 protests in film
• Victory Against All the Odds – the story of the success of the Heathrow No Third Runway Campaign
• Anne Pettitt’s: Walking to Greenham: How the Peace Camp Began and the Cold War Ended is one of many recountings of the story of the Greenham protests
• There’s loads of information on the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp website, including an archive of newsletters, submissions to Defence Committees and so on.
• old editions of Do or Die for a snapshot of radical direct action in the UK, 1992-2003
• It’s also well worth getting some popcorn in a pan and accompanying schNEWS folk to the movies. Offerings fall into several categories: Smash EDO Campaign | Direct Action & Demos | G8 Summit 2005 in Scotland | Anti-War Movement / War On Terror / Invasion of Iraq | Funny Ones
• And last, but most certainly not least, watch Seeds of Hope, the story of the 1996 ploughshare action on a BAe systems Hawk fighter jet

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